Sir Walter "Wally" Benjamin Campbell, (4 March 1921 – 4 September 2004) was an Australian judge, administrator and governor. He was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland, Chancellor of the University of Queensland and the 21st Governor of Queensland from 1985 to 1992.
Background and early life
Campbell was born in Burringbar, northern New South Wales, to Archie Eric Gordon Campbell and Leila Mary, née Murphy. Archie Campbell was a decorated soldier of the First World War, having won the Military Cross for gallantry in action against the Ottoman Turks in Gaza and the Distinguished Service Order for later efforts in Damascus. Leila Campbell died unexpectedly, leaving Campbell and his brothers to spend a considerable amount of time with their mother's parents in northern New South Wales.
The death of his mother interrupted Campbell's early education at a Christian Brothers' convent in Toowoomba and led to his continuing his studies at a college in Lismore, New South Wales. Campbell completed his education at Downlands College, Toowoomba, becoming the college's first Open Scholar in the late 1930s, having already been named dux of the college twice and earning the highest grade in Queensland for Senior Latin.
University and military service
Campbell attended the University of Queensland from 1940, and served as editor of the student paper Semper Floreat during his first year. Campbell became a flight instructor and was based in Tasmania, badly injuring his knee in a biplane crash. After his recovery, the RAAF put Campbell in command of a Liberator Base in the Darling Downs. and returned to his studies. He became President of the University of Queensland Union, and graduated in 1948 with first class honours in Law, having already gained a Master of Arts the previous year.
Legal career
Campbell was admitted to the Bar in 1948 and became a Queen's Counsel in 1960. His practice took him as high in the legal world as the Privy Council in London, before which he appeared on several occasions. He became a member of the Law Faculty Board at the University of Queensland in 1954. contrasting this number with the increase that had taken place by the time he was Governor of Queensland. In 1965, Campbell became President of the Queensland Association, holding this position simultaneously with the presidency of the national equivalent from 1966 to 1967.
Judiciary
In 1967, Campbell gained a position on the bench of the Supreme Court of Queensland. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he would meet with other Justices in Canberra when they had been summoned to various board and committee meetings and discuss various issues facing the judiciary ranging from problems with sentencing to the difficulty of persuading eminent lawyers to enter the judiciary. The issue of lawyers being unwilling to move from the Bar to the Bench remained a concern to Campbell even after he had left the judiciary and become governor. Campbell became the centre of a controversy, as he was chosen to fill the Chief Justiceship instead of Jim Douglas, the favoured candidate of the Liberal Party. Joh Bjelke-Petersen admitted to choosing Campbell as a "compromise candidate" to Justice Douglas and his own preferred Chief Justice, Dormer Andrews. He was also noted as having contributed significantly to the modernisation of the Court in Queensland during his time as Chief Justice. Campbell was well established within the activities of the University. In 1977 he became Chancellor of the university, holding the position for nine years until 1985. As chancellor, Campbell criticised the method of admitting people into tertiary student positions, claiming some reform was needed.
This tradition of controversy involving Campbell and the government came to crisis in 1987 when there was internal strife within the National Party between Bjelke-Petersen and his cabinet, which almost caused a constitutional crisis in Queensland governance. There had already been murmurs in early 1987 of a vice-regal intervention in Queensland politics when The Australian newspaper in March featured a front-page article detailing State Opposition leader Nev Warburton's call for Campbell to sack Bjelke-Petersen over allegations of illegal conduct by the government. These suggestions came to nothing. However, later in the year when Bjelke-Petersen lost the confidence of his cabinet, the question was again raised as to what role Campbell as governor would play in the event of a constitutional crisis.
On 23 November 1987, Bjelke-Petersen visited Campbell at Government House, Brisbane to discuss a restructuring of his ministry. It was Bjelke-Petersen's wish to dissolve his entire ministry and be recommissioned as premier with a new distribution of ministerial portfolios, however Campbell's advice was for the premier to seek the individual resignations of those ministers he wanted removed from the ministry. This should have been a pro forma request, because the Nationals had a majority in their own right. However, Bjelke-Petersen touched off a constitutional crisis when he refused to resign his commission. Campbell refused to use his reserve power to terminate it after receiving legal advice that he should only dismiss Bjelke-Petersen and commission Ahern if Bjelke-Petersen lost a vote of no confidence. There were also fears that Bjelke-Petersen might advise Campbell to dissolve parliament and call elections. Some sections of the press attacked Campbell for his apparent inactivity during the crisis, while other voices within the legal and political world supported his course of action. As the Sydney Morning Herald had described this tense situation, Queensland now had a "Premier who is not leader" and the National Party a "Leader who is not Premier". The crisis
ended only when Bjelke-Petersen retired from politics on 1 December. Campbell was later praised by many in the media for his handling of the situation.
In March 1988, Campbell gave a lecture on "The Role of a State Governor" to the Royal Australian Institute of Public Administration, Queensland Division, in which he described the various functions carried out by state governors, the legal and constitutional framework of the office and numerous historical accounts of different situations involving vice-regal figures in Queensland and other Commonwealth domains.
Retirement
After seven years as governor, Campbell retired in July 1992. He did not retire quietly, continuing to speak at various functions and publicly opposing Paul Keating's push for an Australian republic in 1993 by writing to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. He continued his advocacy for the monarchy later that year when launching the second volume of "Upholding the Australian Constitution", stating, "republicanism I think is being used by certain people as a pretext or as a blind or a screen to conceal a deeper purpose or purposes".
Personal
Campbell married Georgina Pearce in 1942, He resided with his family in Clayfield, Brisbane while a member of the Supreme Court judiciary and retired to Ascot after leaving Government House. He died at age 83, at his home on 4 September 2004 after a short period of illness, and was cremated at the Mt Thompson Crematorium.
Honours
Campbell was appointed a Knight Bachelor in 1979, and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1989. In 1993, he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland. On 1 January 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal.
See also
- Judiciary of Australia
- List of Judges of the Supreme Court of Queensland
- University of Queensland Union